By Your Side
by the bean25
Summary: [Part of the Damaged Heart series] Regan stays with Flack when he needs her most. Spoilers for 2x24. Not a songfic.


Regan was standing in the kitchen putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher. Her cell phone rang from the other end of the counter.

"Slow down, Lindsay. I can't understand what you're saying." She told Lindsay who was talking fast and everything was running together.

"A building, it exploded. Don was inside with Mac. He's alive they took him to Mercy General." Lindsay told her.

"Oh, my God." Regan said and slid down the wall she had been leaning against. "Wait, what, Lindsay is he gonna be ok?"

"Yeah, if Mac wouldn't have been there…" she trialed off.

"You said Mercy General, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going right now. Thank you." Regan hung up the phone, grabbed her keys, and ran out the door.

She took a cab to the hospital. She asked the driver to go as fast as he could through the traffic. When they arrived she ran from the car to the emergency room. She went to the front desk.

"I'm looking for Detective Flack. I was told he was brought here." The woman behind the desk looked at a computer screen then told Regan he was upstairs getting ready to go to surgery. Regan ran down the hall to the elevator. When she got to the third floor she went to the desk in front of her and asked again for Flack. The woman pointed down the hallway and told her what room.

Regan searched the room numbers for the one she wanted. "Regan," she heard someone ahead of her say.

"Mac," she replied.

"Regan, he's going to be ok. He's going into surgery right now."

She was standing close to him. "Mac, thank you so much for what you did. Lindsay told me if it wasn't for you…"

"I just did what instinct told me to." She had started to cry for the first time so he pulled her into a hug. "We're gonna get this guy, I promise."

"Thank you." She smiled and rubbed the spot she had left on his jacket. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Listen I have to go. Call if anything changes, ok? I'll be back soon to collect evidence from Don."

"Ok." Regan tried to force a smile.

She made her way down the hallway and found a nurse. "Can you please tell me where Detective Flack is?"

"Are you family?" she asked.

Regan didn't even hesitate to say "yes."

"I'll take you to the waiting room." The nurse offered.

Regan followed her to the small room where another woman was sitting. She sat down on one of the small couches. She pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed Flack's parents. She put her head in her hand as she waited for someone to pick up. After two rings his mom answered and Regan explained to her what had happened. His mom broke out into tears on the phone and his dad came on.

"Are you ok, Regan?" he asked her.

"Yes, I'm just waiting for him to come out of surgery."

"We'll be there in a little while. I'm glad you're there, Regan. I know he would want to see you when he wakes up." Regan had tears coming down her cheeks.

"Thank you, Don." She replied. They said their goodbyes and ended the call.

Regan stared at the wall across from her. A doctor came in and took the other woman away. Soon after a couple came in that didn't look much older than her. They were both crying. She imagined that maybe they had a young son or daughter getting surgery. Regan hung her head and stared at the floor. A tear fell to the floor.

"Are you family of Detective Flack?" she looked up at the doctor standing in front of her. She had waited thirty minutes for someone to come.

"Yes, Regan is my name."

"Well we've repaired the internal bleeding and stitched up the abrasions he had. He's being moved into recovery right now. He's still unconscious but you can go be with him. I'll have someone take you to his room."

She stood up and followed him out of the waiting room. There was a nurse standing outside the room. She followed the nurse down the hallway to the room Flack had been moved to.

Regan stood in the doorway for a little while. She stared at Flack lying in the bed motionless. He was wearing a thin hospital gown and there was a thin blanket covering half his body. There were tubes going into his arm and oxygen tubes going into his nose. There were bandages on his face. Regan had her hand to her mouth. She was holding back her tears. She walked over to the bed and kept her eyes on Flack's face. She put her hand on his. She could tell there was a large bandage on his stomach.

Regan pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. She interlaced her fingers in his. He still didn't move or even open his eyes.

"Donny, can you hear me?" she whispered. There was no response, which she half expected. She squeezed his hand and got nothing in return.

She leaned against the bed and started to think about the last time she had seen Flack that day.

_Regan was sitting on the bathroom counter as Flack was putting on his tie. She was staring at him._

"_Don't go. Come it's Sunday morning. Stay with me," Regan begged._

"_I have to go," he came over and stood in front of her. Her legs were on either side of him. "But I'll be back, I promise." He said and leaned down and kissed her._

_She put her arms on his shoulders. And he put his hands on the counter on either side of her. "Promise?" she asked._

"_Promise. I love you," he kissed her again._

"_I love you, too."_

_Flack left the bathroom then left the apartment._

Regan smiled at the memory. At least they had been able to say they loved each other before he had left. That was great, but God how much she didn't want to lose another person she loved. He was the only person in the world that she loved the she had around. Now she was watching him in a hospital bed. She was hoping he would pull through. She squinted away tears, but they fell anyway. Regan put her head down on the bed with her face toward the man she loved.

"Regan," she heard behind her. She lifted her head and looked back at Flack's parents standing in the doorway.

She wiped away the tear on her cheek. "Hi," she tried to smile.

They walked over to her and his mom put her hand on her shoulder and his dad walked around to the other side of the bed. "How's he doing?" his dad asked.

"Good, I guess." Regan replied and hung her head. Her head fell onto Flack's mom and she finally let her tears flow.

Twenty minutes later Flack's parents had left and Regan was again alone in the hospital room with Flack. She looked out the window and saw Mac and Stella sitting in a couple of chairs in the hallway. Danny and Lindsay were looking in the window and she saw Hawkes out there as well. They each looked at her and smiled. She watched Danny and Lindsay leave then Hawkes then Stella. Unlike the others Stella came back minutes later with a couple of coffees for her and Mac.

Regan had her head laying on the bed when Mac came in a while later. She lifted her head to look at him revealing her tear-stained cheeks.

"How you doin, Regan?" Mac asked as he walked to the other side of the bed.

"I'm alright," she replied. "I'll give you a minute. I'll go get some coffee or something." She stood and then left the room.

Regan made her way to the elevator and down to the coffee shop on the first floor. It was late and there was no one sitting at the tables around the small kiosk. She ordered a coffee and sat down. A woman came up a minute later and did the same. Regan looked at the woman and they smiled at each other.

"Let me guess," the woman started. "Your husband?" she asked.

A smile pulled at Regan's lips. "My boyfriend."

"Is he gonna be ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

The woman got up and joined Regan at her table. "I'm Joan. My father is the one I'm here for. He's has kidney failure. But he's been sick for a long time, so I've kind of come to terms with it. He's lived a good life."

"My, uh, boyfriend. He was in a building that exploded. I'm pretty sure he's going to be ok. He's still unconscious, but the doctor said that they believe he'll pull through and be ok."

Joan put her hand on Regan's. "It's good you're being strong for him."

"Yeah, I'm trying. He's a tough guy himself. I have no doubt he's gonna be ok."

"Well, I better get back. It was nice talking to you." She stood. "Maybe we'll see each other again."

"Yeah, thanks for the conversation." Regan smiled as the woman walked away. A couple minutes later Regan took the remainder of her coffee and she went back upstairs. When she got to the room Mac was still there. Regan watched from the side of the doorway as he talked to Flack. She could hear him tell Flack to squeeze his hand. Then Flack's fingers tightened around Mac's. Regan put her hand to her mouth.

As Mac walked out he didn't say anything to Regan but she put her hand on his shoulder. "He knows you're here Regan." That was all he said and he went to the elevator. Regan watched him walk away then she went back into the room.

She found a more comfortable chair in the corner by the window. She pulled her legs up on the chair and stared at Flack as he laid there still motionless.

Danny knocked on the door frame of the hospital room the next night. Regan lifted her head from her book. "Hey," she greeted.

"Hey, how's he doin'?"

"Good. Nothing's really changed."

Danny walked into the room and over to the bed. He sat down on a chair next to the bed. "Have you gone home at all?"

"No, I had my friend bring me some clothes and something to read. I don't know if I can go home."

"You go home. I'll stay here. Go get some sleep." Danny commanded.

"I can't," she said.

"You can. Trust me I'll call you if anything changes. Go," Danny looked at her like he meant business.

"Alright, fine," Regan stood and grabbed her things. She walked over to Flack and kissed his forehead then left the room.

When Regan got to the apartment she looked around at how she had left things. She went to her bedroom and stared at the bed. The sheets were still messed up. There were two pillows and two impressions in the bed from their bodies. Regan stared at the bed for minutes. She was beyond tired but there was nothing in her that could force her to lie in that bed without him. She pulled the blankets up on the bed and straightened them. Then she changed her clothes and put on tennis shoes.

Two hours later Regan was back at the hospital. Danny was sitting next to Flack's bed filling out some paperwork. Regan sat down and Danny looked up.

"Hey, I told you to go home and get some sleep," he commented.

"Yeah, but one look at the bed and knowing he was here and not with me, I couldn't sleep," Regan kept her eyes on Flack as she spoke. "So, I made the bed, went for a run, took a shower and came back."

"You're hopeless," Danny smiled.

"What do you mean?" she asked and shot him a confused look.

"Hopelessly in love. The both of you are."

"Yeah, what can I say?" She smiled at him. "You said both of us."

"He acts like it just as much as you. He gets all pissy when we have to work late and he can't get home to you when he wants."

Regan smiled and took Flack's hand. "He's a hopeless romantic. You could learn a thing or two."

Danny laughed. "Uh, no, he learned everything he knows from me."

"Yeah, I'm so sure." They both laughed. "Ok," she leaned back in her chair. "Favorite memory with Don."

"Favorite memory?" he leaned back in his chair as well. "Man, that's a tough one," he paused. "Probably the first Ranger's game we went to together."

"I can imagine, that's his favorite team."

"Yeah well we had a great time. We had beers at the game then the Rangers won and we went out afterward. We picked up a couple…" he trailed off.

"A couple girls?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, hey it was way before you. Anyway it was just a great time, I guess because it was our first game together."

"Nothing like the first time," she laughed. "Sorry you left that wide open."

He laughed at her and shook his head. "Alright, funny girl. What's your favorite memory?"

"The day I met his family."

"Really?"

"Yeah, everything that could go wrong went wrong but it was great. We were late because of traffic, his niece threw up on me, his mom showed me embarrassing pictures, and his brother told me every embarrassing story he could think of. And of course his mom went on and on about how terrible it was that my parents had died and my sister. Don was so embarrassed, but I told him afterward that if he would've ever met my family they would've done the same thing." She looked at her boyfriend lying in front of them both.

Danny laughed. "Hey, I'm gonna go get some coffee, you want some?"

"Uh, no actually I'm good," he told him then Danny left the room.

Two days later Regan was in the same spot she had been for over three days. Nothing had really changed. Flack was still in the same spot and the same state of unconsciousness. Regan had gone beyond her sadness and now she began to accept how he was. People came and went regularly, mostly Flack's family and co-workers. They would always ask how he was doing and she would tell them that not much had changed.

It was late and Regan was tired. She had gone through one book and had moved onto another. It was usually the time when Danny would come but he wasn't there. Regan stared at the man lying in front of her. She rubbed her hand across his hair. She took his hand on hers and intertwined her fingers with his. She laid her head down on the hospital bed close to their hands. She fought her eyes closing at first but then let the sleep take her.

Regan woke to the sound of a voice and her hand was being moved. "Regan," she heard. She pulled her head up quickly and looked at Flack; his eyes were open and he was looking at her.

"Hey, there," she started. "How do you feel?"

"I'm ok," he answered groggily.

"You had me scared, you know that?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry," he tried to smile. "Did everybody get out of the building ok?"

"There were a couple people who didn't make it out, but Mac's ok but I'm sure you heard him talking to you. The other guy that was with you made it out."

"I did hear Mac and I heard everything else. You and Danny," he continued still in a half whisper. "Tell him when you call him that those girls weren't that pretty." He started to laugh then stopped. "Oh, that hurts."

"Don't worry I'll tell him. But I'm not leaving to go make phone calls. I haven't talked to you I've been going crazy." She smiled at him making him smile. "I'll text Danny." She pulled out her phone and did what she had described.

Regan rubbed Flack's hand and continually smiled at him. "You look tired," he told her.

"I am but my eyes are on you."

"Go to sleep Regan I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

She laid her head down in his hand. She smiled for a while then fell asleep.


End file.
